Steve Rustad illuminates issues and dissects politics

Money Drop

Futile as it might seem to some, protesting the new Rohnert Park casino offered the local residents – and the rest of us who feel that a adding a couple of thousand more slot machines to the county will damage our quality of life – some faint hope of influencing the future. Alas, the gambling interests who are underwriting the tribes’ efforts have such deep pockets that they can literally smother the opposition’s cries of with money. When the seemingly unstoppable casino-resort materializes, and wreaks its inevitable consequences of increased gambling addiction and drunken driving arrests on Rohnert Park, saying “I told you so” will be small comfort to those whose efforts to protect their neighborhood were drowned out by tribal cash. Unfortunately we’ll see that “What Happens In Rohnert Park…” does stay in Rohnert Park.”